Season's screenings: Hollywood loads up on end-of-year Oscar bait

Friday

It’s officially Christmas season, and Hollywood is coming bearing gifts in all shapes and sizes. You name it; our cinematic Santa has got it: sequels, remakes and even an original idea or two.

It’s officially Christmas season, and Hollywood is coming bearing gifts in all shapes and sizes. You name it; our cinematic Santa has got it: sequels, remakes and even an original idea or two. Many, like “The Artist” and “Young Adult,” hold serious Oscar aspirations, while others, like a fourth “Mission: Impossible,” a second “Sherlock Holmes” and a third “Chipmunks” movie, look to cash in on past glories.

The real treat, though, is the appearance of not one, but two flicks directed by Hollywood master Steven Spielberg, although some worry that “The Adventures of Tintin” and “The War Horse” may not pack the widespread appeal of his biggest hits. But count on both playing a big part in the upcoming Oscar race.

Same for director David Fincher (“The Social Network”), who looks to earn a second straight Oscar nomination with his star-studded remake of the Swedish hit “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Its stars, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, also will be anticipating invitations from the Academy, as will Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson for their work in Cameron Crowe’s heart warmer, “We Bought a Zoo.” If you prefer smaller, independent animals, there are plenty of those, too, led by the very British espionage thriller “Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy,” starring an Oscar-worthy Gary Oldman as John Le Carre’s venerable secret agent George Smiley. And on the quirkier side comes “A Dangerous Method,” eccentric Canadian director David Cronenberg’s imagining of Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) competing for the heart of one Keira Knightley.

Yes, there are many gifts under the tree this year and you can start opening them next Friday, beginning with:

Dec. 2

Tomboy: In director Céline Sciamma’s follow up to “Water Lilies,” a gender-confused 10-year-old girl (Zoe Heran) cuts her hair and tries to pass herself off as a boy, and in the process catches the eye of a smitten neighborhood girl (Jeanne Disson). And, no, this isn’t based on the childhood of Chaz Bono.

Dec. 9

New Year’s Eve: In 2010, director Garry Marshall massacred “Valentine’s Day.” This time he’s out to ruin everybody’s favorite party night with another star-studded cast participating in a series of disjointed vignettes involving impossibly good looking lonely hearts. Among those shamelessly cashing paychecks are Oscar-winners Hilary Swank, Robert DeNiro and Halle Berry. And what crappy movie would be complete without the acting-challenged Ashton Kutcher?

The Sitter: Borrowing liberally from the plot for 1987’s “Adventures in Babysitting,” Jonah Hill stars as an incompetent child minder who endangers his young charges by taking them along on a death-defying inner-city adventure in which they encounter muggers, buggers and thieves. The director is the once-great David Gordon Green (“Pineapple Express”), whose last “comedy” was the brain-dead “Your Highness.” On the plus side, Sam Rockwell and J.B. Smoove costar.

Shame: In a film blurring the line between porn and art, Michael Fassbender dazzles as a sociopathic sex addict whose life spirals into turmoil after his sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his New York City apartment and begins reviving painful memories. The British auteur Steve McQueen (“Hunger”) directs.

Outrage: In this Japanese Oscar-contender, rival underworld bosses enter into a bloody power struggle involving drugs and murder.

Dec. 16

Young Adult: Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman, the team that brought us the marvelous “Juno,” reunite for this equally subversive comedy in which Charlize Theron, playing a beautiful, but selfish, author of books for young adults, jets back to her childhood home in Minnesota intent to break up the marriage of her high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). Patton Oswalt is drawing Oscar buzz as the nerd who loved her from afar years ago, and pines for her again once called upon to help her bag her ex.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked: For their third cinematic adventure, the singing rodents take a disastrous sea cruise with their manager, Dave Seville (Jason Lee). Think “Gilligan’s Island,” except instead of the virginal Mary Ann, we get a collection of B-list human actors and cheesy animatronics sure to please the 6-and-younger set.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: If a film makes hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s elementary that there will be a sequel. And you don’t need Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his loyal assistant Watson (Jude Law) to prove it. This time the famous detectives are on the scent of a mad man (“Mad Men’s Jared Harris), who is out to harm a beautiful fortune-teller (Noomi Rapace from the “Millennium” trilogy). Guy Ritchie returns in the director’s chair.

The Artist: This black-and-white beauty about silent film stars (Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo) falling in love at the dawn of talkies was a huge hit at the Cannes Film Festival. But will meat-and-potatoes American audiences be as rapturous about a silent movie in the day and age of cacophonies like “Avatar”? Doubtful, but if you’re a true film buff this charmingly arty flick from writer-director Michael Hazanavicius (“OSS-117”) is not to be missed.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: John Le Carre’s popular 1974 novel receives its third incarnation (it was previously a BBC miniseries starring Alec Guinness and a PBS radio serial) as a big Hollywood movie in which Gary Oldman plays retired British spy George Smiley, who is called back into service to root out a Soviet mole. Oscar-winner Colin Firth and Thomas Hardy co-star in this adaptation by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (“Let the Right One In”).

The Conquest: Jacque le bleu! A scathing film about a sitting French president? Yes, director Xavier Durringer takes direct aim at Nicolas Sarkozy (Denis Podalydès ) in a “W.”-like satire about the events leading up to the womanizing politician’s much publicized divorce from his previous wife, Cecilia.

The Iron Lady: Yet another real-life politician gets her Hollywood close-up in this controversial flick starring Meryl Streep as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reuniting with her “Mamma Mia” director, Phyllida Lloyd, Streep reportedly delivers another Oscar-worthy impersonation in chronicling the much-maligned Thatcher’s rise to power in the 1980s.

Wednesday, Dec. 21

The Adventures of Tintin: In the first of two holiday gifts from Steven Spielberg, the director brings to animated life the popular children’s stories by Belgian cartoonist Hergé concerning the adventures of a plucky boy reporter (voiced by Jamie Bell). Well, popular everywhere but in America. Spielberg’s name should be enough to lure the Yanks into an exciting, colorful film that’s already a gigantic hit in Europe and Asia.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: The torch is passed on the world’s most famous tramp stamp as Rooney Mara inherits the dragon tattoo from Noomi Rapace in this Hollywood version of the smash Swedish hit about a young woman’s Monte Cristo-like revenge on the pigs who did her wrong as a child. Joining the search for the culprits in part one of author Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” is ace reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who serves as the yang to Mara’s Lisbeth Salander’s yin. The picture also reunites Mara with her “Social Network” director David Fincher, who works from a script by Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”).

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: The third time was hardly a charm for this flagging Tom Cruise franchise with 2006’s “M:I-3,” but everyone’s favorite Scientologist is out to win back the masses by hiring Pixar stalwart Brad Bird (“The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille”) to direct this spy-vs.-spy adventure in which Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is on the trail of the culprits behind a bombing at the Kremlin. “The Town’s” Jeremy Renner costars.

Friday, Dec. 23

A Dangerous Method: Director David Cronenberg is on a roll with the back-to-back successes of “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.” And that streak promises to continue with this quirky tale about Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) competing for the affections of a young woman played by Keira Knightley. Now, these are the kinds of shrinks I want to see.

We Bought a Zoo: This one might not have you at hello, but Cameron Crowe (“Jerry Maguire”) is determined to win you over with this fact-based tale about a grieving widower (Matt Damon) who buys a rundown California zoo and proceeds to rebuild both it and his life. The male animals will be happy to learn that the film costars Scarlett Johansson as a zoo worker who accelerates the recovery of the bereaved husband.

Sunday, Dec. 25

The War Horse: How often do we get two Steven Spielberg movies in one year, let alone one week? But Christmas indeed comes twice, as the prolific auteur follows up “The Adventures of Tintin” with his take on Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel about a boy’s quest to reunite with the horse his father (Peter Mullan) sold to the British army during World War I. As the boy with the undying devotion to his equine friend, newcomer Jeremy Irvine is drawing plenty of Oscar buzz, as is the movie, which is locked in a (excuse the pun) horse race with “The Descendants” and “The Artist” for Best Picture. Besides, who can say neigh to Spielberg?

The Darkest Hour: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby and Max Minghella are among a group of young Americans trapped in Moscow during an alien invasion. Talk about a Red Scare! Chris Gorak directs.

Several other films in the Oscar race won’t officially open in the Boston area until January. Here are some of them you can look forward to seeing. A tentative opening date is listed at the end of each blurb:

Pariah: In a drama cut from much the same cloth as the Oscar-winning “Precious,” a teenaged lesbian (Adepero Oduye) from Brooklyn’s volatile Fort Greene neighborhood comes of age despite a troubled home life courtesy of her bickering parents (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell). (Jan. 6).

Carnage: Roman Polanksi directs this film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway hit “Gods of Carnage,” a darkly funny look at two couples (John C. Riley and Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) coming to verbal blows after their young sons get involved in a schoolyard fight. (Jan. 13).

In the Land of Blood and Honey: Angelina Jolie steps out of the celebrity spotlight and moves behind the camera to make her writing and directing debut with this harrowing story about a Christian Serb (Goran Kostic) and a Bosnian woman (Zana Marjanovic) whose lives are torn apart when violence flares between ethnic and religious groups during the Bosnian war. (Jan. 13).

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: I tend to hate movies like “Remember Me” that rely on 9/11 as a cheesy plot device. I fear this film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s cloying 2005 novel about a boy (“Jeopardy” winner Thomas Horn) and his dead dad (Tom Hanks) will join that pitiful hall of shame. But that doesn’t mean I’m not holding out faint hope that Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry (“The Hours,” “Billy Eliot”) can turn sap into gold. Aiding him in his quest are Sandra Bullock as the kid’s mother and Max von Sydow as a shell-shocked old soldier Horn’s precocious Oskar befriends in his quest to unlock a mystery involving a key his father left behind. (Jan. 20)

Albert Nobbs: Tired of being passed over for prime movie roles, Glenn Close took matters into her own hands by co-writing a gender-bending script perfectly tailored to her skills. In it, she plays a 19th-century Irishwoman who for 20 years successfully disguises herself as stiff-upper-lip butler Albert Nobbs. Trouble arises when he/she falls in love with a beautiful young woman, played by “It” girl, Mia Wasikowska. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Johnson costar.

Rampart: Owen Moverman directed Woody Harrelson to an Oscar nomination two years ago with “The Messenger,” and hopes to do the same with this gritty cop drama co-written by “L.A. Confidential” scribe James Ellroy about the City of Angel’s infamous Rampart division, a scandalous collection of corrupt policemen who left a lingering black stain on the department in the 1990s.

We Need to Talk About Kevin: Tilda Swinton gives one of her most haunting performances in this Cannes hit about a mother whose troubled son (Ezra Miller) goes on a Columbine-like murder spree. Lynne Ramsay (“Morvern Callar”) directs from a screenplay based on Lionel Shriver’s controversial bestseller. The always great John C. Reilly costars. (February).

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